If you’ve ever compared website creating to magic, you may have noticed that both online shop creating and a magic trick consist of 3 parts.
In the first part you see the object: a ‘raw’ template with plenty of Latin text, a name which doesn’t even fit your project and a design which you still need to adjust. The second part is “The Turn”. The ordinary thing turns into something extraordinary. At this stage you customize a template to a state which you hope impresses your customers and becomes eye-candy to you. The third part of the trick is usually getting everything back to the initial state… but not for you. This is actually the only thing that differentiates a website creation from a regular magic trick. Your rock-solid, online store endures for a long time, spreading joy and profit to the owner and customers alike. Actually, it is more magical than a regular trick, and that’s great.
We suggest that you check out these 20 free & premium eCommerce templates: OpenCart, Magento, Prestashop & WooCommerce. Beautiful, elegant and ready to roll, they can become a superb foundation for your online stores. Start a new project at the drop of a hat, check out the themes, get inspired and – most important – remember anything is possible for you.
Free PrestaShop Themes
1. Tire Rack
Wheel & Tires template will become a great theme for a wheel & tire store. Strict square design is the central idea of the layout. Ironically, square design sells round-shaped items best. Anyway, this theme will also be perfect for industrial, architecture, interior and sport stores.
DOWNLOAD | DEMO
2. Ikon
IKON is a free PrestaShop theme. A truly clean design excludes any distracting items, focusing your attention on the products in the store. The proper effect is achieved by using lots of white space and the hover effect applied in the menu. Simplicity – that’s the main idea.
DOWNLOAD | DEMO
3. GameGear
Another free PrestaShop theme for creating an online shop. An unusual shape is used in the design of this theme – a rhombus. There is a call-to-action button on it; overlooking it is absolutely impossible. When you scroll down, you see the first New Products section, then Featured Products and Recent Blog almost at the bottom. Read the rest of this entry »
Before you take on your next web or app design project asking yourself the following questions might help enhance your productivity and make your work more cost-efficient: Am I using the right tools and resources for the project that I’m working at? Is there a better way I could approach this project? Are the tools and resources that I’m using the best available on the market? There are new tools and resources constantly appearing on the market, some of which could make your work easier and your results more professional looking.
You may find this listing of UX and UI tools and resources quite useful. Most of these tools feature rapid prototyping capabilities together with powerful team collaboration and information sharing capabilities. If you are looking for the latest UI resources too, then browse this listing and stay updated with the most recent developments in the UX and UI industry.
Creating prototypes will make communication between the designer, the project manager, the development team and the client easier. Proto.io not only makes this whole process painless, but it also does it in style.
You’d be surprised by the options that Proto.io offers to its users in order to create mobile prototypes of their app designs. What’s interesting among its new features is that it has a vast interactive Material Design UI library.
This tool allows you to show your audience prototypes that have the look and feel of the real app. The latest version is packed with a number of new or improved features. There are for example, 49 new fully-interactive UI elements that support ripple effects, drop shadows, an upgraded color picker, and a selection of animated morphing features that allow even greater creativity.
Different versions can be created for various devices and screen sizes thanks to the adaptive UI elements found in Proto.io’s library. You can download your prototype to your mobile device, see how it looks directly on it, and show the prototype to your clients in a realistic environment. No coding is necessary to create of manage your prototypes.
Pidoco can be used to create wireframes, mockups and prototypes for any number of applications, including mobile apps. Powerful features in this prototyping tool include real time editing and smart sharing, a spec generator, an extremely useful template system and more.
Pidoco makes it possible to create highly interactive prototypes that give a realistic picture of what the final application will look like. Clicks, keyboard and touch commands can be combined to configure a prototype as you go along. This powerful prototyping tool with its commenting, versioning, and issue tracking capabilities, enables you to easily collaborate with others and share real-time information in the process. You can run your prototypes on mobile devices with the click of a button via an app, and without a need for downloading or generating code. Read the rest of this entry »
In spite of the fact that WordPress — the most popular and widely used Content Management System — has always been simpler in terms of user interface, making users set up their websites or blogs in a few seconds, availability of a lot of scripts for installation of WordPress CMS has brought things even simpler! Nowadays, when it comes to ‘techy’ aspect of setting up a WordPress site, it is all about choosing an appropriate WordPress theme. In the post, however, we shall have a list of top WordPress themes, which, we hope, will help you when kick starting your WordPress blog or website. We hope we can now move on to the list.
X is one of the best themes you can now find in WordPress theme market, when you are concerned about simplicity of User Interface, different designs to choose from, deep-level customization and lots more. Even though basic kinds of elements may resemble the real theme, you can change almost everything in Theme X, making it seem somewhat exclusive in perspective of a user. This completely responsive theme includes other features such as a page builder, based on drag-and-drop layouts, typography that includes more than 600 Google fonts, shortcodes to extend looks & productivity of your blog or site, customizable backgrounds, integration with eCommerce etc.
DEMO
More often than not, Bridge — the WordPress theme —can be an appropriate way to bridge the gap between your, or your client’s, firm and the customer. Truly impressive & simple design of Bridge will steal almost everyone’s mind, given that the theme offers an intuitive control panel to keep things in motion. As great blessing to the visual impact, Bridge offers other sorts of features such as retina-ready display, background that supports videos and images, tons of shortcodes to extend reach etc.
DEMO
Well, if you are one of those who do not like coding, Brooklyn will be one of the best themes you can find for blog or site you have created using WordPress CMS. With a number of impressive designs, Brooklyn can different categories of requirement a professional internet marketer, blogger or web developer might have. Some of the other features of Brooklyn are ultra-responsive design and layout, seven different header styles, unlimited page styles to use etc.
DEMO
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Node.js is increasingly gaining popularity among web developers. Due to all hosting companies Node.js remains the prerogative of dedicated servers and VPS. Actually VPS is a solution that even a small startup can afford.
For more details refer to the documentation on nodejs.org. As you know, Node.js supports modules. You can find the folder for global modules here: \winginx\nodejs\node_modules\. Modules installed in this folder will be available in all scripts. You can use them, or create a copy in the home directory of your site.
- Winginx includes module manager NPM, popular framework Express.js, and template engine Jade.
- For debugging Node-Inspector module is connected. It’s ran as a Node.js server, to access it hit http://localhost:8080/ (please note that it works only in the webkit-compatible browser – Google Chrome).
- What’s more, to ease your work with database modules and MySQL are also connected.
In brief we can say that Node.js, in contrast to PHP, is not interpreted but is compiled into a single server, and therefore occupies separate port. In conjunction with nginx it works as a backend-server, practicing dynamic queries, and nginx is engaged in statics. Read the rest of this entry »
Like designing? Or already a Pro? You are sure to find this useful. Here is a collection of 10 awesome freebies for your next design projects. Whether you’re looking for “plug and play†visual content, a beautiful textures, or some icons, you’re bound to find new favorite free web design resources on this list.
Quality is essential if you’re to maintain a professional finish. Fortunately the quality of the resources available to us continues to rise and premium standard resources are everywhere. Here’s a collection 10 Killer Free Web Resources from DealFuel.
1. Trendy Grunge Textures
Grunge effects rules year after year. This is one trendy texture that never runs out of Popularity. So get your website trendy this season with these subtle grunge textures.
Download them here
2. Thin Line Icons
These line icons serve as sure-shot attention grabbers. They make the websites user friendly and help navigate a user on your website efficiently
Download these here
3. A Collection of Eye-catching Vector Icons
Spice up Your website’s features with these 30 Flatteriffic Vector Icons.
Read the rest of this entry »
A human is a creative creature. However, in most cases this creativity needs some tools to be implemented. This principle has a long history: some theories claim that in fact tools made apes evolve into human beings. Now the sticks and stones are exchanged by more refined instruments. Nevertheless, we still need them to develop ourselves and our works.
Web design and web development are not the exceptions. Either you are a professional or an amateur, you need good tools to start the work process. Since there will be Christmas soon, I believe it will be helpful to list some of the best instruments for web designer and developers: utilities, apps, magazines. Make some gifts for your loved ones, friends – or for yourself in case you’re a web designer of web developer.
Pens
Creative designer needs to improve his manual skills of drawing to struggle for more originality in his works. This tablet is a wonderful choice for such noble cause.
This pen display is not so cheap, however the value of the gift will be more because of that. The accessory can be praised for high resolution and deep colors. Read the rest of this entry »
Creative Market is a platform for handcrafted, mousemade design content from independent creatives around the world. It helps creatives easily access a wealth of beautiful design content for their projects. Whether it’s finding a unique vector pattern for a textile, the perfect font with personality for a new logo, or any other kind of digital creative content that helps you produce something amazing.
Creative Market is currently running a Black Friday Promotion, you can get 20% off your next purchase until midnight of 2nd with this Coupon link. In order to help you, we have selected the following great creative products you can take a look at.
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When you’ve poured your heart and soul into designing a truly stunning app, it’s important to help show it off as best as you can. And what better way to show the look and feel of your app than by showing how it would appear running on a device? Whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, Android or desktop app or website, showing it in use gives it some context, adds some visual appeal and can help to make your landing page look smarter and more professional.
Of course, it can take a surprisingly large amount of work to create a mockup of a phone, tablet or laptop in Photoshop, but fortunately there are some incredibly talented designers out there who have generously released some templates that they’ve created for free.
We’ve put together a collection of some of our favourite device templates – each of these look stunning, and range from intricate and highly detailed, to flat and minimalist. We hope you find the collection useful for when you next need to show off your newly designed app – and as a reminder, please be sure to check before downloading and using them for commercial apps, as there may be some license restrictions.
Android Devices by Ian Mintz
Flat Apple Templates by Pierre Borodin
Perspective App Screens
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We have published a post about Free eCommerce Platforms some time ago. Some readers suggested that we can make a post for premium eCommerce platforms as well. Here we have done a comparison of some of the most notable shopping cart software packages available.
I’m very aware that this is an incomplete list, and I plan on doing further research and posting eCommerce shopping cart reviews in the future. Until then, I hope this limited information helps send you in the right direction. Here you go, the Best Premium Shopping Cart Solutions Comparision.
1. Shopify
Shopify is a complete ecommerce solution that allows you to set up an online store to sell your goods. It lets you organize your products, customize your storefront, accept credit card payments, track and respond to orders — all with a few clicks of the mouse. The Shopify Theme Store hosts a collection of over 100 premium and free ecommerce website templates as well. Every website template comes with its own settings so you can quickly and easily customize your website’s design.
| Features: 9/10 |
Pricing: 9/10 |
Customer Support: 9/10 |
| Overall: 9/10 |
2. Big Cartel
Big Cartel is where artists set up shop. They provide clothing designers, bands, jewelry makers, crafters, and other artists with their own customizable store to sell their stuff online. You can pick one of the beautifully designed, pre-made themes and easily customize the images, colors, fonts, and more using the simple controls. You can also add your store to any Facebook page and connect your fans to your products through the seamlessly-integrated Facebook app.
| Features: 7/10 |
Pricing: 8/10 |
Customer Support: 9/10 |
| Overall: 8/10 |
3. Bigcommerce
Bigcommerce is a e-commerce website builder is designed to help you sell more. Their search engine optimization (SEO) gives you higher search rankings, meaning more free traffic to your store. You can choose from more than 60 payment gateways like PayPal, Authorize.net and Google Checkout. With discount and coupon codes, social media integration, newsletters, automatically generated customer lists and an abandoned cart saver, Bigcommerce gives you more marketing tools than anyone else.
| Features: 9/10 |
Pricing: 7/10 |
Customer Support: 7/10 |
| Overall: 7.6/10 |
Read the rest of this entry »
As a designer, sometimes it’s difficult to get started on a new project. Maybe You will need to scour the web for inspiration, or doodle on a notepad to hopefully get some ideas. That’s when you need to look through collections of freebies.
Fortunately, enhancing your web design doesn’t have to cost a small fortune or take a lot of time. Here are 10 Awesome Freebies for Designers that can help enhance your web presence today.
1. Flat SEO icons
This set of 12 flat SEO icons is perfect for adding a light-hearted and playful tone to sites. The flat aesthetic is set off beautifully by the modern color palette and the addition of the long shadow technique is a sophisticated touch. Playful and approachable, the icons are useful for a number of different industries.
2. Colorful Grunge Textures
The pack contains 25 .jpg textures at 5000 by 5000px saved at 300ppi. The textures are compatible with all photo editors that support layers (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, GIMP, Pixelmator etc.), both PC and Mac.
3. Modus Versus PSD Template
Modus Versus is a free multi-purpose PSD template, designed on the 1170 grid system. Excellent for use with responsive frameworks like the popular Twitter Bootstrap, it could form the basis of a good corporate site.
Read the rest of this entry »
